How we cite our quotes: (Story.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Could he not escape from his little house? Was it too late for him to try to live bravely like Gallaher? Could he go to London? (A Little Cloud.109)
Little Chandler asks as many questions as Shmoop does. Check out how desperate that tone is. All those quick queries right in a row give us the sense that Little Chandler's having a little freak out.
Quote #2
He longed to ascend through the roof and fly away to another country where he would never again hear of his trouble, and yet a force pushed him downstairs step by step. (The Boarding House.22).
Sometimes we're most childlike during the most adult situations. Really, you want to fly away, Bob? Real mature. Way to own up to your own deeds.
Quote #3
But real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad. (An Encounter.8)
In Dublin, the push for freedom starts really, really young. The narrator of "An Encounter" wants desperately to find himself in a bona fide gunfight in the bona fide wild west. But instead he ends up almost trapped by a would-be pervert. Yeah, that's proof that dreams don't always come true if we've ever seen it.
Quote #4
She had consented to go away, to leave her home. Was that wise? She tried to weigh each side of the question. (Eveline.5)
All those lists of pros and cons don't ever work, do they? The choice between staying the course and escaping to freedom usually comes down to a split-second decision, as it does for our Eveline. One minute, she's game to vamoose. And the next minute, her feet are stuck to the dock. She chooses confinement. Strange, right?
Quote #5
She stood up in a sudden impulse of terror. Escape! She must escape! Frank would save her. He would give her life, perhaps love, too. (Eveline.18).
Is this your final answer, Eveline? We're doubtful, that's for sure. Here the choice seems clear to her because really, who would choose to be imprisoned, in a sense, by a horrible family situation, and a dead-end life in Dublin. But that's just what she chooses a few lines later. The question is why?
Quote #6
Every step brought him nearer to London, farther from his own sober inartistic life. (A Little Cloud.11)
Just wait till he tries the drunk inartistic life at the end of the story. How's that working out for you, Little Chandler?
Quote #7
"And haven't you your own land to visit," continued Miss Ivors, "that you know nothing of, your own people, and your own country?"
"O, to tell the truth," retorted Gabriel suddenly, "I'm sick of my own country, sick of it!" (The Dead.130-31)
We're all pretty sick of Miss Ivors by this point, too. But the real point of this passage is that Gabriel's on to something here. And he's really the only character who has gone so far as to actually say that he's unhappy in Ireland. Maybe he's so trapped he just can't hold it in anymore.